Acts of vandalism and fear in neighbourhoods: Do they affect housing prices?

Abstract

This chapter assesses whether acts of vandalism and fear of crime affect neighbourhoods, particularly their effect on housing prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime and fear of crime, controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic information system (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales with offences data, responses of the 2008 Safety Survey and land-use characteristics of the study area, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. Results indicate that apartment prices are affected by both vandalism and fear (in an area and its neighbouring zones). There is an indication of a synergic effect of vandalism and fear in neighbourhoods: when vandalism and fear of places in the neighbourhood are assessed together, results show that housing values tend to be lower than in areas where either vandalism alone or fear affects property values. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the results and recommendation for future studies.